Today's Opinions

By LEONARD PITTS JR.
Lyndon Johnson once said of Gerald Ford that he “played too much football with his helmet off.”
Theodore Roosevelt once called William Howard Taft “a fathead with the brains of a guinea pig.”
Harper’s Weekly once described Ulysses S. Grant as “a drunken Democrat dragged out of the Galena (Ill.) gutter.”

TEN-TEN-TEN.
Did you notice your calendar Sunday? That’s what it said —10/10/10.
If you add an extra “n” at the end of the third TEN (or delete the “e”) you get an abbreviation for our great state.
How about that?

My husband and I recently went to the Roane County Courthouse with our concerns about our property taxes.
First we were directed by Officer Stooksbury to the Property Assessor’s Office.
Ms. Teresa Kirkham was there helping another lady. We waited and when she was finished with her, she asked if she could help us, and we spoke with her about our issue.
We were pleasantly surprised with how helpful everyone was. Ms. Kirkham informed us of some things we were unaware of.

Thank God for programs like Mid-East. I used to have to decide betweendoing without electricity or medicine.
With help from programs like LIHEAP, Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, I don’t have to choose.
Another program helps me with a voucher for the nutrient drink, Ensure.
My thanks to Tonya, Kay, Diane and Kay.
Ruby Davidson
Rockwood

Gentle reader, as we promised at the end of last week’s column, we will devote this column to a further discussion of Social Security.
Some readers may have missed last week’s column, so, to bring them up to speed, let us repeat the gist of what we said then in response to the position statement of Republican Congressional candidate, Dr. Scott DesJarlais, who is running against incumbent Representative Lincoln Davis for the Fourth District seat in Congress.

By CHARLES C. HAYNES
Beginning this fall, students in Jodi Ide’s class at Brighton High School will go beyond textbook discussions of world religions and engage directly with students in Pakistan, India and elsewhere who actually practice the faith traditions covered in the curriculum.
And, yes, this is an American public school.

This summer, for the first time in about 20 years, I had a kitten in the house again.

It was an unplanned acquisition — the little guy was rescued with his siblings after someone dumped them.

The one I took was physically the most unusual of the bunch. He is polydactyl — with seven toes on each front foot. I confess that it was this strange trait that convinced me to take him, because I was not in the market for an additional pet.

Time was my son would breeze through his weekend high school homework and then complain.
You know the drill … “There’s nothing to do around here. I’m bored!”
We assured him life would change when he headed off to the Big University.
And so it has.
Nowadays, he doesn’t exactly breeze through the weekend assignments.
Rather, he schedules and hosts study groups around his responsibilities with the football team.